Rest In Peace "Brig Lew".

An 11 x 14 Acrylic Painting of  Harrison Point Lighthouse
 by Mark Phillips

Firstly, let me apologise for not posting over the last week. I was off the island on business and time just did not allow it.

This is an 11 x 14 acrylic painting of the lighthouse at Harrison Point, St. Lucy. When I started this piece I intended only to capture a beautiful St. Lucy sunset to complement the sunrise at River Bay that I did before.

However, from the time I started working, a sense of sadness came over me as I started to reminisce about the time I spent stationed at Harrison Point in 1984 & later in 1986/87.

I did my recruit training at the old U.S. Naval Base at Harrison Point which by this time was controlled by the Barbados Defence Force and renamed the National Youth Service Training Centre, (N.Y.S.T.C.) Despite the gruelling and sometimes sadistic nature of the training, I can still say that the experience at Harrison Point had made me the man, the father, the husband, that I am today.

When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I didn't want to spend the next 4 or 5  years of my life at University training to work for someone else. I had the required GCE O & A levels but I had no intention of being stuck in a classroom. I had spent 8 years at the Lodge School and enough was enough.

I was a rebel at school, constantly getting into trouble for flaunting any rule that was in my opinion, silly. I wore suede shoes for 3 years because I argued that the rules required that brown leather shoes be worn and opinioned that my suede shoes were indeed leather. This lead to many confrontations with the then headmaster, one Cecil Everton Aurelius Smith or "Joe", as he was known to us students. Joe was constantly on my case about my shoes and no matter how I was punished, I persisted in defiance of this silly rule. The thing that made it more frustrating for Joe was the fact that I was best friends with his nephew Michael and very good friends with another nephew Craig and his son Roger. This brought us into contact more than either Joe or myself would have liked. 

One evening, when I was in my final year of Upper 6th form, l was walking across the courtyard around  5 pm. after cricket practice and Joe stopped me. He told me not to come to him for a testimonial as he would not perjure himself for me. I was really taken aback by this. I did not even intend to ask him for one but I was still pissed. It would be many years later before I consciously made the effort to forgive him for that slight. That was when I learned of his prolonged illness around the same time as hearing about the murder of his wife.

However, I digress. Joining the Barbados Defence Force channelled me in the right direction when I could have easily wandered done the wrong path.

This painting conjures up feelings of sadness, not because of my recruiting experience but because of what happened a few years later. It was in either 1986 or 1987 that I, a young Second Lieutenant just back from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, was posted as Officer-in-Charge of the base at Harrison Point. By this time, the camp was no longer a training camp. It was a guard post. The explosives used for excavation by the nearby cement plant was stored in the old US army armoury which was situated in the T-Building in the area close to the lighthouse. The soldiers guarded the building and provided armed escort services for the explosives.

It is customary for the Officer-in-Charge to have a Sergeant as his Second-in-Command (2IC). However, I was posted there for about 3 months with a Corporal as my 2IC. And, what a corporal! Corporal Murphy was the most unreliable, untrustworthy, conniving son of a bitch that you would ever have the misfortune to meet and on top of that he was an alcoholic that would drink himself into a stupor on occasions. Not the type of person that you would like to leave in charge! The result was that for my entire tour of duty at Harrison Point, I did not go home. I spent every night in camp even when I was officially off!

Unfortunately, I was not the only one spending unusually long hours in camp. We were understaffed and most of the men were working 3 or 4 times harder than their counterparts at Headquarters, (HQ), or even at the new Paragon Base. Moral was at an all-time low and tempers were beginning to flare. There was only one telephone available to make outside calls and for obvious reasons, I had forbidden its use for personal calls. This meant that soldiers were out of contact with their wives and girlfriends and the teasing of the other soldiers about who was doing what with them was beginning to take its toll.

I made a report to HQ highlighting the status of moral of the men and stating my concerns about me alone supervising 30 unhappy testosterone-fuelled soldiers walking around with rifles and live ammunition.  I was accused of being melodramatic. Fortunately, I was reassigned a few weeks later. It was very soon after that Private Roderick Lewis, (aka Brig Lew), was shot and killed at Harrison Point by another soldier as they were on guard duty one night.

This incident hit me hard! I was devastated! Not only was Brig Lew a friend of mine, we had recruited together at Harrison Point. Not only had I lost a friend but I am sure that the situation these young men were placed into at Harrison Point was in some way responsible for this incident.  I will say no more before I say too much. Continue to Rest In Peace "Brig Lew".

"Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod." Aristophanes

For your information, some months after I had left Harrison Point, Corporal Murphy was driving drunk one night and was involved in a fatal hit and run which resulted in him going AWOL and leaving the island to avoid prosecution.

My art is inspired by my life's experiences. Every painting has a story and, although when I started this painting, I had no intention of telling this story, I am glad that I did.

As always, thank you for reading, I appreciate the comments and the kind words of encouragement. Until next time when I will share some more of my work with you, please leave a comment.  And, I will really appreciate if you share this post with your friends. To make sure that you don't miss any future posts, Please enter your email address in the subscribe by email box on the right.

Mark Phillips

Artist
Email:- mark@phillipsbajanart.com
Website:-www.phillipsbajanart.com
Online Store:- PhillipsArtStore